geekhack
geekhack Marketplace => Interest Checks => Topic started by: madmax13 on Thu, 10 April 2025, 14:52:07
-
(https://i.imgur.com/HDAWxVf.jpeg)
SA Motorsport Selectric
This is a new set designed as an homage to classic motorsports.
SP Store Page (https://spkeyboards.com/products/sa-motorsport-selectric)
Designer Discord (https://discord.gg/GarvkjJUXh)
Designer Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/keycaps_by_madmax13)
Details
- Designed by switchbox.studio and Madmax13
- Doubleshot ABS
- Manufactured by Signature Plastics
Inspiration
I ****ing hate this -Blacksimon
We designed Motorsport Selectric to invoke classic liveries from the golden age of sports car racing, between the mid-1960s and ‘70s. One of the era's most famous and distinctive liveries belongs to Gulf Motorsport, whose name and colors appear on winning cars from many races, including the legendary 24 Hours of Le Mans. Despite the brand's dissolution in 1985, the livery and colorway endure to this day both within and outside of motorsports. Racing fans worldwide know this livery for its bright orange and powder blue, shown in the photo below.
(https://i.imgur.com/cSK8hvR.jpeg)
The IBM Selectric typewriter and subsequent namesake Signature Plastics SA kits are also primary influences for this set. While the SA Selectric kits came before my time in the hobby, I think they demonstrate how uniquely suited the SA profile is to icon modifier legends. While the Selectric kits represented the dominant source of icon mods in the SA profile, they lacked any examples for Print Screen, Pause, and Scroll Lock keys. With this in mind, we have designed double-shot friendly versions based on publicly available icons that have previously appeared on popular dye-sub keysets.
As a further homage to the theme, we have developed new arrows reminiscent of the US standard W1-8 chevron alignment signage used to indicate sharp turns, shown Below.
(https://i.imgur.com/ID1TkKC.png)
I designed this set with the stock Signature Plastics colors in mind and listed them on the kitting renders.
A note on Gulf Livery and colors
Gulf livery is something that hasn't been static in the 60 years that it has graced racetracks. Different cars from different years have different interpretations of the colors. For example, some cars have black pinstriping, some don't. On some racing vehicles, the orange is a bit more on the red side, on others, it is more yellow. The blue is different in every racecar that has ever worn the livery, going from a very desaturated powder blue to a blue-green that I dare call seafoam. The point is, I have done my very best to capture the Gulf Livery as I remember it on the GT40, which is a powder blue with a warm orange accent and black pinstriping. To check me on this point, Gulf has a pretty interesting history of different historical racers wearing the livery, linked below.
Gulf Livery (https://www.gulfoilltd.com/gulf-livery)
I chose to maintain stock colors for my livery. About four blues and five oranges would work for this livery, but this is the one I chose.
(https://i.imgur.com/xDTL0mQ.jpeg)
Kitting
I designed the kits to conform to guidance suggesting a monokit alongside a set of smaller, more focused kitting. As such, I made the monokit to work with UK ISO and ANSI keyboard standards, modern Alice, full size, and Happy Hacking Keyboards with a full set of novelties. This monokit is for people who just need a bit of everything.
(https://i.imgur.com/KvpkmfP.jpeg)
I designed the small kits around an “alpha +” strategy, in which a consumer with a normal enthusiast keyboard (smaller than or equal to a TKL using ANSI layout with Tsangan bottom row support) must only buy the alpha kit plus another modifier kit. I designed this to minimize the number of different kits that users need to buy to cover their keyboard. 1800 or full-size keyboard users will need to purchase the number pad kit, and Alice users will need to buy the “extras” kit. I modeled the “40s and Ortho” kit around DSS After School with extensive feedback and iteration from the 40s Discord server.
(https://i.imgur.com/xje8NN0.jpeg)
(https://i.imgur.com/TmURtUX.jpeg)
(https://i.imgur.com/GxTBu6b.jpeg)
(https://i.imgur.com/F8VF77a.jpeg)
(https://i.imgur.com/Z2rag97.jpeg)
(https://i.imgur.com/Ot0fNVX.jpeg)
(https://i.imgur.com/kPZDJ8C.jpeg)
(https://i.imgur.com/LL4KW1k.jpeg)
Renders
Renders made under different lighting conditions to show how the colors might react under different color temperatures.
(https://i.imgur.com/oM7sGlY.jpeg)
(https://i.imgur.com/XqTBgnj.jpeg)
(https://i.imgur.com/oiQs8XR.jpeg)
(https://i.imgur.com/JQlBB0s.jpeg)
(https://i.imgur.com/QI8RdvU.jpeg)
(https://i.imgur.com/Xn5tToK.jpeg)
(https://i.imgur.com/DsKKSwP.jpeg)
Special thanks to the keyboard design collective, 40s discord, and Seattle mechanical keyboards for their feedback.
-
reserved
-
Can't wait for this!
-
Please consider providing 1.5u R2 backspace and a second 1.75 R4 shift so that 12.5u 40% users can use alphas + 40s mods without having to purchase 60~80s mods.
-
Love the theme, great looking set
-
Please consider providing 1.5u R2 backspace and a second 1.75 R4 shift so that 12.5u 40% users can use alphas + 40s mods without having to purchase 60~80s mods.
When I get to revising the kits, I will add it. If you haven't, can you fill out the IC to that effect as well?
Thank you for the comment!
-
Excellent colorway, GLWIC!
-
I see the UK ISO set as a separate kit, but also included in the base kit, what is the decision on that ?
-
I see the UK ISO set as a separate kit, but also included in the base kit, what is the decision on that ?
In keeping with my kitting strategy this time, the monokit has effectively everything. Like, say you don't want everything, have a, IDK, 65 percent keyboard, and are a UK ISO user, you can get away with just Alphas + 60-80s Mods + UK ISO kit.... and it should be cheaper than the alternative. Basically it's either monokit or a set of smaller kits.
Also note, because I made the 40s kit as comprehensive as I could, there's no 4 key support in the monokit.
Also, a general note- the spikey novelties are knock lugs and were common to the era as a form of center-lock system for wheels.
-
Updated 40s kit based on community feedback (Added additional 1.75u shift and 1.5u R2 Backspace)
-
Love the color scheme, as an avid gear head, I love the throw back to the 60-70's era. Just wish it was available in a shorter or uniform profile. In any case, good luck with this set!
-
icon mods on sa are just bad and i love icon mods pls reconsider
-
the 40s/ortho kit is overkill you can prolly slim it down by a lot and even put some of the even weirder bars in their own kit
I much prefer 40s being an add on to a base mods + alphas kit rather than being given the option to pay the same price for exclusively 40s mods or exclusively big mods
-
Update 4/14: Updated Colors (BFL to BFJ) and renders- See picture below.
(https://i.imgur.com/RUFfm6e.jpeg)
Love the color scheme, as an avid gear head, I love the throw back to the 60-70's era. Just wish it was available in a shorter or uniform profile. In any case, good luck with this set!
Thank you for your kind words. I might run it in a different profile later, if there is interest.
the 40s/ortho kit is overkill you can prolly slim it down by a lot and even put some of the even weirder bars in their own kit
I much prefer 40s being an add on to a base mods + alphas kit rather than being given the option to pay the same price for exclusively 40s mods or exclusively big mods
This kit doesn't have a base kit; it has a monokit (think SA Macrodata Refinement) that is more of a "greatest hits" of the small kits and the more traditional SA small kits. For 40s specifically, this is designed to minimize the number of kits end users have to buy and maximize the amount of that ecosystem the kit can support. It's the reason there's no 4-key in the monokit.
Right now, one of the consistant responses from the IC is a positive response to how the 40s kitting was, so there's that, but will take this under consideration.
icon mods on sa are just bad and i love icon mods pls reconsider
Thank you for your feedback. I will take that under consideration. I love me some selectric mods, though. I have considered a text mods kit.
-
4/21/2025
Just a bit of an update on the IC responses:
Of those that replied, 90% said they were interested in buying the kit, with 3% saying "no," 3% saying "maybe," and 3% saying will buy with colmak-DH support.
Of the kits, 53 percent wanted small kits, with the remainder wanting the monokit.
Just so you know, I added a question about which small kits interest you. Right now, with few responses, there is an even split between the 40s kit and the 60-80s kits. Everyone seems to want the novelty kit, which is a testiment to the job that switchbox.studio did with this kit.
-
I'm thinking about spinning the theme into another profile. I'm thinking of trying KAT or MTNU, as I think center print legends fit the "vibe" of this set.
-
I love KAT for their feeling and sound. You'll have to get the double shot process though no idea of the delays for that now in 2025.
-
Would prefer KAT to SA without a doubt. SA is a tad too tall for my taste.
-
Want a cherry profile one :D
-
I love KAT for their feeling and sound. You'll have to get the double shot process though no idea of the delays for that now in 2025.
Would prefer KAT to SA without a doubt. SA is a tad too tall for my taste.
Here is a quick, unannotated mock-up of this in KAT: one kitting diagram and one board render.
(https://i.imgur.com/28YGsCg.jpeg)
(https://i.imgur.com/JJrWFuy.jpeg)
-
KAT is fire. Let's do this!
-
This would be an absolute banger of a set in MTNU. Perfectly suits the theme, would bring much needed colour to that profile
-
This would be an absolute banger of a set in MTNU. Perfectly suits the theme, would bring much needed colour to that profile
I would, and I did, mock up this as an MTNU set- the reason I am going with KAT is I already have two active ICs for an MTNU set in MTNU Welles and Dashboard. KAT is something different that I've not done and want to work with Keyreative.
For interest, here is a (very) quick and dirty version of these colors in MTNU.
(https://i.imgur.com/wo9WwWY.jpeg)
-
MTNU would have been immediate buy for me. GLWIC!
-
I hope at least this stays SA
-
I hope at least this stays SA
Well, you're in luck. SP recently reached out to me informing that this will be entering presale soon(ish). So, this will be SA, and happening relatively soon!
-
Nice. The glossy finish of SP SA will compliment these colors in a perfect way :)
-
Presale starts tomorrow!
-
Added Store page link, will write up GB post today!